The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Ali Isa Pantami, says Nigerians yet to obtain their National Identification Number (NIN) risk up to 14 years imprisonment as stipulated by the Nigerian constitution.
Pantami said while owning a SIM card is optional, the NIN is mandatory as a lot of transactions are not supposed to be carried out without NIN.
The minister disclosed this at a State House press briefing on Thursday.
He added that 51 million Nigerians had registered for their NIN as of March 31, 2021.
According to Pantami, there are 189 million registered subscriber identification module (SIM) cards in the country. Of this figure, he said 150 million have complete registrations while the remainder have problems of improper registration.
